http://www.w3.org/ -- 28 October 1999 --
Removing a major hurdle to the deployment of privacy-enhancing technology on
the Web, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released a legal analysis finding that
Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) technology does not infringe a patent
held by the Intermind Corporation. P3P enables Web sites to inform users of
their privacy practices and will give users more control over the use of their
personal information on the Web. Widespread deployment of P3P-compliant
technologies was threatened when the patent holder sought to charge royalties
for products or services using the P3P specification, despite the fact that
the technology was developed in an open, collaborative process by a number of
W3C Members.

"Given the fundamental importance of privacy protection on the Web, and our
commitment to open standards, we decided that it was our responsibility to
provide the community with a thorough analysis of the relationship between the
patent and P3P," said Daniel J. Weitzner, Technology and Society Domain Leader at the World Wide Web Consortium, responsible for P3P development.

The Analysis

The Intermind Patent (U.S Patent No. 5,862,325) claims rights in certain
techniques of controlling interactions between clients and servers, especially
with respect to the exchange of personal information. Though much of the
Internet is based on such technologies, the assertion of proprietary rights in
this field had a chilling effect on the Web community's plans for P3P
deployment.

W3C retained noted patent attorney Barry Rein, of Pennie & Edmonds, to
evaluate the degree to which P3P does or does not infringe the Intermind
patent. Mr. Rein and his team, assisted by Joseph Reagle, W3C Policy Analyst
instrumental in the development of the P3P specification, concluded
that compliance with the P3P standard can be accomplished without infringing
Intermind's patent.

The Legal Argument

The legal conclusion that P3P technologies would not infringe the Intermind
Patent rests on a comparison of the technologies claimed in the patent against
the structure of P3P. The essential technology in Intermind's patent consists of
"communications objects" used as "control structures" to direct
client-server interactions. These control structures use object-oriented
programming techniques to transfer both executable program instructions and
associated metadata from client to server. P3P does not infringe the
Intermind patent because it specifies no such control structure. The analysis
prepared by Mr. Rein and his team finds:

.... P3P does not include the control structure of the '325 patent claims
for at least two fundamental reasons: (1) neither the proposal nor the User
Preferences file includes data, metadata, and instructions organized using
object-oriented programming to encapsulate the data together with the
instructions for using it, and (2) neither the proposal nor the User
Preferences file provides location transparency or completely specifies a
communications relationship. For these reasons, P3P-compliant Web services
and user agents do not literally infringe any claim of the '325 patent.

Web Community Support Critical in Patent Analysis

During the course of the review, W3C called on the Web community to
contribute information that might assist the attorneys in their work. W3C
received over 100 substantial technology contributions from technologists all
over the world. W3C would like to thank all who contributed to the effort
for their help.

The Importance of P3P

P3P's design keeps users informed of a Web site's privacy practices, and allows
users to control what information they choose to disclose to a Web site, as
well as how that information may be used. P3P privacy disclosures and requests
for information are expressed in the W3C's widely deployed Extensible Markup
Language (XML).

P3P technology was created by a consensus process involving representatives
from more than a dozen W3C Member organizations, as well as invited privacy
experts from around the world.

For the first time in the history of the World Wide Web Consortium, the
open technology development process came into conflict with intellectual property
claims. "We felt that we owed it to the Web community to clear up the
confusion over the Intermind patent," said Weitzner, "but hope not to make
this a regular practice."